Iron Dump in Ocean Leads to Calls for Comprehensive Test Ban of Geoengineering
California businessman, Russ George, convinced a small indigenous community of 700 people in Old Massett, British Columbia, Canada, to invest $2.5 million in a “geoengineering” project of iron dumping in the ocean to stimulate plankton growth in order to restore the salmon in the area. Russ George convinced them they could restore the health of the sea and recover their investment through carbon trading and through harvesting a revived salmon run.
The project is in direct violation of a moratorium on iron dumping put in place at the meeting of the United Nation’s Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) two years ago. Hands Off Mother Earth (H.O.M.E.) organized a successful campaign to stop such practices after Mr. George had dumped iron by the Galapagos Islands, threatening that fragile region. Legal experts say it also violates the London convention on the dumping of wastes at sea. Both conventions prohibit for-profit ocean fertilization activities.
Governments of Bolivia, the Philippines and African nations as well as indigenous peoples organizations at the current meeting of the UN CBD in Hyderabad, India, are calling for the current moratorium to be upgraded to a comprehensive test ban of geoengineering that includes enforcement mechanisms. Check out the following articles:
Entrepreneur “Seeds” Ocean with 100 Tons of Iron Dust, Outrages Scientists (AllGov)
A Rogue Climate Experiment Outrages Scientists (by Henry Fountain, New York Times)
Entrepreneur Got Away With Dumping 100 Tons of Iron Dust in Ocean (by Sydney Brownstone, Mother Jones)
World’s Biggest Geoengineering Experiment “Violates” UN Rules (by Martin Lukacs, The Guardian)
World’s Largest Geoengineering Deployment off Coast of Canada’s British Columbia (etc Group)
Planktos Kills Iron Fertilization Project Due to Environmental Opposition (MongaBay Environmental News)
Its Livelihood gone, fishing village tries scheme to seed a barren sea (The Globe and Mail)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/its-livelihood-gone-fishing-villa…
Businessman Russ George defends experiment seeding Pacific with iron sulphate (The Globe and Mail)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/businessman-russ-george-defen…
New Evidence Re: Old Masset Iron Fertilization Scheme (Watershed Sentinel)
http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/new-evidence-re-old-masset-iron-fertilization-sc…
World’s biggest geoengineering experiment ‘violates’ UN rules
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/15/pacific-iron-fertilisation-geoenginee…